Tag Archives: barbara

10 December 2008

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Winter sunshine shot of St Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich, taken from outside the Forum during my swift guided tour of the city for Jeanette and Graham, who are now in Liverpool, or possibly Southport, and thinking of buying a car, which is hardly surprising, given the size of their suitcases and their lack of any permanent hall to leave them in. They sent us a nice message thanking us for our hospitality and inviting us to Cornwall when they (a) get there and (b) find a house. They seemed quite happy with out cold winter weather: apparently Jeanette, at least, “likes the cold”.

Meanwhile things have quietened down a bit. Today I spent quite a lot of time making Christmas cards and then addressing envelopes. I surmounted the problem of replacing two ink cartridges while Dot was away with Barbara working on P4C in Metfield, though I did lose it momentarily while trying to use of one of those cheaper cartridges where you have to switch the electronic tag, or whatever it is. Definitely not worth saving the money. Incidentally the P4C website designed by David with content by Dot and Barbara is now up and running. Proof-read by me, so any mistakes are my fault. I’m hoping there aren’t any.

Dot finished her inspection at Carleton Rode on Monday morning. I took some stuff up the tip. That pretty much sums up our different roles. In the evening I played a really good game of chess against Colin Payne, then lost it through one bad move late in the evening. Unaccountably, I have been feeling down ever since, though I don’t think it’s entirely the chess. I’m not sure what it is.

Dot went to the dentist yesterday and apparently needs some work doing, despite the dentist’s admiring both the quality of her teeth and her general fitness and stunning appearance.. Apparently she would never be taken for a woman of 63. Tell me about it. We had a mammoth number of people round in the evening, and Dot and I ended up sitting at the breakfast bar. Still, the carrot soup didn’t run out, and we had a good session. I may not have mentioned (yes, I could check) that we also went to Ambient Wonder planning on Sunday, and tomorrow we have the big AW adventure, when we take over St Stephen’s Church just outside Chapelfield Mall and try to entice passers-by into talking to us and seeing what we have to offer. There is some excitement about this (quite rightly), but I find it difficult to cope with the chaos of it. This is a character defect. I have just been reading Jack Earl’s autobiography (he is in his late 90s), and it is amazing what he has done in his life – on a purely geographical level, apart from everything else. I put this down to his enjoyment of camping, which I could never get enthusiastic about. Oh, and the war.

24 July 2008

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Rather an embarrassing picture of me on a horse, which must have happened in some sort of alternative reality, otherwise known as the late 1960s. It was unearthed by David in a selection of old slides that I rashly let him take away and examine. The place is Wales – more precisely, Green Lane, Corwen, behind what used to be Dot’s aunt and uncle’s house. The person in control of the horse (clearly not me) is Tish, otherwise known as Julia, one of our lovely bridesmaids, who almost coincidentally, now lives in precisely that house with her sister Gloria. Or she did last time I heard.

This week has been very busy, and I’m feeling extremely tired. I also have a slightly annoying condition (I’m not sure it’s an infection) in the area of the operation, but I’m hoping it will go away rather quickly. It did before. All adds to the tension, though. On Monday I had the blood test that will eventually reveal whether the operation was totally successful. Blood in my right arm proved elusive, but the nurse eventually found it in my left arm, despite the computers all being down.

Tuesday was hectic. Annette R came round and we tried to sort out what was going into the Paston book. This involved a lot of printing out of poems and making of lists. We eventually decided I needed to go out to the workshop yesterday to discuss things further with Caroline and a couple of the poets. So I did, and then we decided I needed to go out there again today, with all the poems (I hope) printed out in the correct font for us on the photographic plates. On the way I’m picking up a book from Jessie which may be of interest to Lucy.

Also on Tuesday Barbara came round to do some work with Dot on their Thinking Skills project. We all had lunch together. In the evening a gang of seven came round, and I cooked chili con carne for them. Towards the end of the evening I felt so tired I almost crept out of the room and up to bed, but I just managed to hang on until the end. Not that I didn’t enjoy it: it was just very tiring.

Yesterday I gave Naomi a lift back to Norwich from Paston, then had lunch at home before walking up into the city to do several errands, including picking up my new reading glasses. Very hot day. I got a bus back. Meanwhile Dot was having lunch with Jessie at Wroxham Barns, and City Care were cutting branches off trees at the end of the road, possibly (or possibly not) in response to an e-mail I’d sent warning about the possibility of more branches falling off and causing damage.

This morning I’ve been finishing off the printing. It’s another warm day, and I leave for Paston in less than an hour.

27 October 2007

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As promised / threatened, here is another picture of the garage, now with floor completely painted and refurbishment complete. Did I say complete? Since this picture was taken a number of improvements have been made, including curtains hiding the big door, rotation of the desk, and a number of items moved from the house to the garage. Still looks pretty good, and I’ve managed to dispose of the Strimmer, the logmaker, the hose and some old magazines on Freecycle. In the end I decided to keep the leaf blower and see how it works on this autumn’s leaves.

My study now also looks several thousand times better (no picture), and I’ve started work on what might become a novel or might not. I’ve also written a couple more poems to go with work by Joan, and I’m quite pleased with them. Fairly quiet week on the whole: the weather has turned a mite chilly. Yesterday our neighbour of 19 years moved out and the house is standing empty, though apparently the new owner is expected any time.

Dot is with her friend Barbara at the moment, and I’ve been catching up with stuff I need to read. I also popped over to the cinema to see if there was anything on worth seeing, but it’s a typical half-term: wall-to-wall rubbish.

Tomorrow evening we travel to Caddington, to return with Oliver the next day. He is staying with us until Thursday, and Dot has a programme scheduled which includes the Dinosaur Park and several aunts. Dot’s cousin came round on Thursday and stayed for a meal.

as at 19 July 2007

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Two-day break at home. On the 18th I called in on my cousin Barbara and her husband Roy after I’d had my hair cut at Reepham. Wonderful garden. Nice to see them after so long.

Today we marked the end of an era by going to Sue E’s farewell party at Tuckswood School. Tuckswood seems to keep drawing me back. It was the first school I went to when I was about 4 and it was a newly opened nursery school on a spanking new postwar council estate. Then we moved to Coventry. Eventually we came back after my father died, but I was then high school age and I went to the City of Norwich School – about a half-mile from Tuckswood.

But when I was going out with Dot and she left college, the first school she taught at was … Tuckswood. Later on, when we were married, she taught there again under different heads and eventually became deputy to Sue E. They got on exceptionally well and Sue encouraged her to become head at Alburgh, but of course there still links through Sue and the Norfolk Association of First and Primary Heads, which usually had meetings there. Now Sue has finally retired. The school hasn’t changed much since I first went there: interesting building. It was quite an emotional afternoon.

The picture of course is of Sue and Dot, who gave a really good speech.

29 June 2007

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Two intrepid climbers near the summit of the previously unclimbed Mount Shingle, on the North Norfolk coast, during their trek across the uncharted Cley Marshes – known in some quarters as the Empty Miles. This was a two-woman expedition, totally unsupported except for the cameraman, his friend and the occasional coffee and ice cream.

Happily they survived to tell the tale. A similarly dangerous expedition was in fact undertaken by one of them, with her husband (me) only four days later, when we left Norwich on the 10am train for Liverpool Street, followed by a taxi drive through unmapped road works to the Tate Gallery on Millbank. Good food at the Tate: after it, we went round the Hockney/Turner exhibition, which was pretty amazing. I really think late Turner (1830-50) is just about as good as you can get. Wonderful use of light, amazing composition, and the feeling that you’re looking into another dimension. Rilke said beauty was as much of terror as we are able to bear; if so, this is right where awe, terror and beauty meet. Even the ones that were barely started were marvellous.

We followed this by visiting the The Way We Are photographic exhibition, which was £6 each (concessions) more than the other one. Turner is free!! Nevertheless some remarkable pictures here, mixed in with some rather average ones. It’s amazing how some of the pioneer photographers overcame technical difficulties to produce really artistic, poignant pictures.

We returned to the West End by bus. The driver was unable to “find” £1 change for our £5. Past the Houses of Parliament, where there was hectic media activity: a lesser event today was the abdication of Blair and the coronation of Brown as Prime Minister. Plenty of anti-war protesters also there, and in Whitehall. Very, very slow progress down Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. When we heard today that a potential car bomb had brought traffic in the area to a standstill, we wondered how anyone had noticed.

We walked up St Martin’s Lane and had a meal in Med Kitchen: a superb rib-eye steak for me – one of the best I can remember eating. Green beans and chips. Dot had a salmon fishcake, which was also excellent, and we shared fries. Both of us had creme brulee to follow. We were going to walk up to Tottenham Court Road, but the sky went black and water started falling from the sky, so we doubled back and went into Leicester Square Tube Station, where the guy in the ticket office had no interest whatsoever in his job, talking to colleagues and doing other things while a queue built up. We had no alternative but to wait. It reminded me of Italy.

Had a bit of a wait for the train home, but all went smoothly, although it got colder and colder.

Yesterday we went to Reepham for a hair cut. I went for a walk but failed to find my cousin Barbara’s house, so will have to check the name. Afterwards we had lunch in the old station – excellent – and then went to check on the dinosaur park in case the weather at the weekend is good enough to take the children there. Afterwards back by country lanes to the A47. Brief break, then Dot went off in my car to Park Farm and I took her car for a service, then walked home (about three miles). Dot went to visit her aunt, then to Gillingham in the evening as a governor.

Today, after I finished my page for next Monday, we started by picking up the car. Weather still very showery, as it has been for days, when it’s not been solid rain. I left Dot to pay and drove back into city, where I called at Prospect House with Aunt E’s ad, then paid in some cheques. Brief visit home, then went to to UEA to see a production by Eugenia’s translation group, which turned out to be a half-hour of sketches based on Molly Bloom’s monologue in Ulysses. Surprisingly well done. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but it was fascinating and very clever in parts.

Afterwards called in at Morrison’s for a big shop for the weekend: our family are coming up to see us. Dot now has her head down working on a school report.

Oh, I forgot. On Tuesday I finally tracked down my cousin Jon, who was staying at a caravan park at Ludham in his rather luxurious motor home. It was the first time I had met him for many, many years, and I had never met his wife Dorothy before, although they have been married for 46 years. They live in Axminster, Devon.

I can only conclude that all Dorothys are something special, because she was lovely. Had a really good 90 minutes or so there, talking about family history and getting some details for the family tree (I gave Jon a printout of what I have so far). Then rushed back home (beating highways authority plans to prevent anyone entering the city by blocking roads and causing general congestion, which I am sad to say is ongoing today), just in time to meet Ruth K, with whom I’m doing a song recital / poetry reading for charity in November. Guess who’s doing the song recital aspect of it. Worked a few things out. In the evening went to Ed’s for the Tuesday meal while Dot finished her previous report.